Management apparatuses that manage system backup images (hereinafter referred to as “images”) for restoring an apparatus, such as a virtual machine (VM), or the like are provided. A description will be given of an example of such a management apparatus. A management apparatus does not hold data that is allowed to be obtained through the Internet, for example, data held by an external repository, or the like among data included in the image of the apparatus, because the data is allowed to be obtained through the Internet. Then, the management apparatus obtains data through the Internet at predetermined timing, for example, at timing when the apparatus is restored, or the like, and generates an image for restoring the apparatus using the obtained data, and the image data held by the management apparatus.
Related techniques are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2000-200208 and 2000-293420, and Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2005-501342.
However, as described in the following, with data obtained by the above-described management apparatus, there is a problem in that when the data held in an external repository is updated, it is sometimes difficult to deal with the data in order to restore the apparatus, or the like.
For example, data held in an external repository is sometimes updated by a user who uses the external repository. Also, an external repository sometimes does not hold all updated data, and holds only a predetermined number of generations of the data. Accordingly, even if the above-described management apparatus attempts to obtain data before update at predetermined timing through the Internet, the data before the update is not held in the external repository, and thus the management apparatus sometimes fails in obtaining the data before the update. Also, it is thought that in the case where the management apparatus is not allowed to obtain the data before the update, the management apparatus obtains data after the update, and attempts to generate an image for restoring the apparatus using the obtained data and the image data held by the management apparatus. However, since the obtained data has been updated, there are cases where the management apparatus fails in generating an image for restoring the apparatus. Accordingly, there is a problem in that it is difficult to deal with the case, such as to restore the apparatus, or the like when data held in an external repository is updated with the above-described obtained data by the management apparatus. In this regard, such a problem occurs not only in the case where data held by the external repository is updated, but also in the case where data stored in a storage device other than the external repository is updated in the same manner. Also, such a problem is not limited to the problem of unable to restoring the apparatus.